Have you ever reminisced about your 7th grade summers detasseling corn in the hot Nebraska sun? No? Me either. But if you would like a similar experience as an adult try painting your deck!

To start you need to decide on your color(s) and figure out which product fits your situation best. After looking at a few photos online we decided we really liked the two tone effect created by painting the railing and deck base different colors. The trim on our house is white and the siding is a light blue-gray color so we chose to do the new railing white and the base blue-gray. After looking at a few reviews and chatting with the guy at Lowe’s we landed on Sherwin Williams Weathershield in White Satin and Olympic RESCUE-IT Moderate in Powder Mill (it is pretty gray but dries more blue then it looks). He then guided us on the best rollers to use for each product and we got to work.

I read a ton of different blogs and reviews about these products and people’s experiences painting and to be honest I was seriously dreading it. One gal said it took her one month to do her deck. ONE MONTH! She said it was super labor intensive and she had to keep stopping because it was so overwhelming. Uhhh, sign me up? So I can joke about it being as bad as a 10 hour day detasseling but we honestly got it done over the course of 3 days and it wasn’t all that terrible.

Prepping Your Deck

I am notorious for wanting to jump right in and get the project started. JR can’t stand it. He is all about prep work and following the directions to a tee. Be sure to account for prep work in your deck base painting plan (see below) as you will need to give yourself 24 hours post-cleaning. We used the Olympic Biodegradable Deck Cleaner. To apply use one of these handy dandy pump sprayers. I wouldn’t skimp on this part – apparently there are other deck cleaners that come with a sprayer built in but don’t work as well – you can check out YHL’s experience with other cleaners here.

We sprayed the cleaner on and let it sit per the instructions and then power washed it off with our new power washer. It worked fabulously!! I don’t think this deck had been cleaned in 10+ years! I read a couple other reviews about a regular hose with a sprayer attachment working fine but our deck was super dirty and we were in the market for a power washer any ways! Read more…

Out of all the projects we have done the deck has been by far the most labor intensive. When we initially bought the house we figured we would leave it as is and tear it down in a few years and build a brand new one. Upon closer inspection (and a little planning magic) we decided to take it on this spring so we could enjoy it all summer! Structurally the deck is safe and sound but there were a few minor (major!) tweaks that needed to be done to bring it up to speed. You can check out our initial deck design plan here!

The first big project we needed to complete was tearing down the old railing and installing a new one. The old railing was pretty unsafe – the trellis part would literally dissolve into a pile of dust if you kicked through it – and pretty ugly. The top of the railing (the actual rail) was also super warped and uneven. Here is what we started with.

The stair portion of the railing was different though and had horizontal pieces that were in fairly good shape. We decided to go with similar design to tie into that existing railing and save us a little time and money.

To start we decided on a design – horizontal planks. Most decks have vertical planks and these can be beneficial in a few ways – two big examples are that water runs off them well so they stay more dry and kids are less likely to try and climb on them. Horizontal planks are more affordable and easier to install – we went that route! Read more…